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Best Bargain Restaurants: City Lights Of China

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City Lights Of China
Washington

Perhaps because it is so popular, city Lights of China can afford the sort of impersonal service one rarely encounters in a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. And tea does not automatically arrive at your table shortly after you sit down. Should one request some, a pot with a tea-bag tag hanging over its edge is delivered, resulting in an additional charge to your check. When it comes to earning an award, the kitchen pulls all of the weight.

Noodle dishes suitable for a one-dish meal--and well worth including as part of a multi-course Chinese feast--include the counterpart to spaghetti with meat sauce, cha chang mein, and the pan-fried noodles topped with a lightly sauced stir-fry of seafood and vegetables. And what is intended as a substantial lunch-in-a-bowl, pork-noodle soup with pickled mustard, yields four small bowls as a soup course.

Some of the other dishes that make this kitchen a perennial award-winner are Mr. Katz's Crispy Bean Curd; the pleasantly spicy Fresh Squid Country-Style; stir-fried jumbo shrimp with a spicy tomato sauce; shredded pork with hot pepper; and crisp-fried Szechuan beef.

City Lights Of China , 1731 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington; 202/265-6688. Open Monday through Thursday 11 am to 10:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am to 11 pm, Sunday noon to 10:30 pm. AE, DC, MC, V. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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